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Taking advantage of the few weeks I have before entering back into the job market, I took a trip home to see the fam. I found a decent fare into Jackson Hole this time instead of Salt Lake, and as I flew over the Tetons into the valley, I've never missed mountains so much!

I had a great week and spent as much time as possible enjoying those mountains.

Hiking with Dad, Amy, Matthew and Brian:

A few weeks ago, Dad replaced his Honda ST1100 for a sweet Honda Goldwing. I've always loved motorcycles, so I jumped at the chance to take a mini-trip with Dad. We decided to ride up through Yellowstone National Park and stay in Red Lodge, Montana for a night. We had such a great time and the scenery that we witnessed along the way defies all description.

Entering the Park:

Bison along the road:

The view from the top of Beartooth Pass -- this picture does not do the incredible view justice:

Dad kicking back and enjoying the view:

Mesa Falls:

Da-DAH-Da-Dum-Dum-Dum-Da-Dum...

I just LOVE the Olympics! I've been glued to the T.V. every night watching until waaaay too late, but I can't get enough of the competition. I generally prefer the Winter Olympics just slightly, but this year has been really fun. All the background stories on the athletes are so interesting. It is amazing how hard all the athletes work for just one tiny moment. It is incredible.
And can you believe all the World Records that are being broken in the pool? Apparently those nifty body suits really make a difference. Who would have thought.

I'm done!!!

Well, I successfully passed my last test yesterday. I picked up my certificate and bid "adios" to the hour-long drive up to North Houston. Yay!!! Now, for the NSCA exam! Yikes! If you haven't heard from me, just assume I'm tucked away with a mountain-load of books studying for this exam! See you in a few weeks! :)

Memories

This idea is from Melanie:
She suggested that people leave memories -- whether happy, sad, embarrassing, whatever -- as a comment. The memory can be about Luke or I, it doesn't matter.

Here is how you play:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Freedom over Texas

Luke and I decided to fight the madness this year. We had been told the the fireworks show in Houston is amazing and that it was supposed to be the 2nd best show in the U.S. behind only Washington D.C. We debated whether it would really be worth it to join 100,000+ people just to see some cool explosions, but we decided that we'd try it out and see.  We decided to get a hotel close to the park, so we could walk there and walk back without having to fight traffic. GREAT IDEA... I can't imagine how long some people waited in traffic that night.

The celebration itself was a lot of fun. They had concerts by some pretty famous country music stars such as Miranda Lambert, Jo Dee Messina and my favorite, Sara Evans. We also got to see a bit of a volleyball championship, which was very entertaining as well.

The fireworks show was amazing! It lasted about 1/2 hour and it really was cool. We didn't bring the camera because the flyer said they weren't allowed, but when we got there, everyone had cameras...so I wished we had just brought it. We could have got some pretty fun pictures.

I'm not sure if we'll go to all the trouble again next year, but we had a great time. An extra plus was that the weather was great! Not even that hot!

The next night we had Heather and Troy come up for dinner and we did a cheese fondue. Luke's favorite way to celebrate a holiday? With cheese!!! We had a good time and Eva showed off her standing skills. I think she's going to be walking here in just a few weeks -- I can't believe she's old enough already!

Deutschland Part Two: Second Week in Leipzig

Windmills on the way to the Schopau Chemical Plant. Germany has many, many windmills

Week 2

During the second week of training at Leipzig there was some intense class room work, I was even more exhausted this week than the first week, but the activities made it fairly exciting.

Rafting

One of the rafting groups, in a little bit of trouble

On Saturday we went white water rafting on a man-made course. I wasn't sure what to expect, because rafting on a real river is pretty awesome. Turns out, this course was perhaps even better, there were level 3 to 5 rapids, and they were in quick succession. This course is used to train Olympic athletes, so the intensity of the course can be varied by adjusting the water level, thus increasing the flow through the course. My group did pretty well, we only lost a few people in the rapids.

The course with the water shut off


And with the water turned up a bit

The crew in the full rafting get up. I think I may wear this outfit to work when I get back . . .


The Germans liked calling us to attention while we went over rapids. Apparently this is the safest way to hold your paddle when you are not paddling.

Trip to Porsche

The mothership has landed, and the view is great! This is the Porsche Leipzig reception center.

Tuesday night we took a trip to the Porsche manufacturing plant in Leipzig. Turns out the plant also has a world famous test track too, which we got to use. When we arrived at Porsche, they had cars on display everywhere, I have never seen so many nice cars all in one place. After a presentation from Porsche they announced that we would all get to ride along with a professional driver on the test track in a Cayenne Turbo, Porsche's off road vehicle. Not only were these guys professional drivers, they were all professional racers, one of which won Tokyo Drift, the biggest competition in the world for "alternative" racing styles. After the test drive, we had dinner in Porsche's sweet reception center and got to see some of their special cars. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking. . .

Some of my little friends


They wouldn't miss just one . . . would they?


The Porsche Cayenne Turbo, aka. "The Scream Machine"

A little video showing the drivers taking one of the more visible turns on the course. This turn takes your breath away, or scares you spitless.

Dinner at Porsche


Cutaway of a 911 Turbo, I'm glad I wasn't there when they did it


I think I had a matchbox car that looked like this . . .


I would like to take this one to the test track


This is a $250,000 Porsche that I kind of got attached to, but I couldn't get it through customs

Next post, Berlin!

Deutschland Part One: First Week in Leipzig

My View of Leipzig

So, due to the supreme lack of time to compile pictures or even check my e-mail thoroughly, I have neglected to post anything in the blog about my trip to Germany. For those who don't know, my company held a huge training event in Leipzig, Germany for two weeks, after which I had the opportunity to travel to Berlin for the weekend, and then to Stade (outside of Hamburg) to attend a meeting with my co-workers that work there and tour their chemical plant. The trip as a whole oscillated from extremely exciting to mind-numbingly dull, but overall the awesome outweighed the boring and it was way fun. So, I have decided to do this post in parts, as there are a lot of pictures, and lots to tell.

Leipzig Week 1

So, truth be told, I didn't really know what the first week of training was all about until it started, and apparently that was just the way that Dow wanted it, they let us have information as we needed it all week. Basically, the first week of training had a three fold reason: To get us excited about our careers at Dow, to network with other new engineers as well as multiple levels of company leadership, and to give us training and guidance that is much needed and very helpful to new employees in a large and confusing multi-national corporation. So, there was a lot of gettting to know people, a lot of speeches, a lot of interviews, and a lot of activities. The following are some of the activities we participated in:

Organ Concert at The Neues Gewandhaus

The Neues Gewandhaus and Fountain

While I prefer a full orchestra, this was a sweet awesome performance. The Neues Gewandhaus is one of the few cultural land marks that was reconstructed in East Germany behind the iron curtain. The recital included some Bach, some arrangements of Bach, and some Schumann that was out of this word. We also had dinner there afterward.

Inside the Gewandhaus and in concert. Check out those pipes!

The jazz band that played during dinner at the Gewandhaus

Around Town

So, in the little free time that I did have, I walked around Leipzig with some friends, here are a few of the cool places we saw:

This was a way cool building, there is a lot of architecture like this in Leipzig, and a lot of construction, so more is to come.

This is just me at the park in downtown Leipzig. It is kind of like Washington park in Portland, the Zoo borders the park on one side, and the city borders it on the other three.

I believe this is the old Thomas church, but this picture can give you an idea of what the streets are like. All of the side walks were cool cobblestone designs.

A few of my group members and I out to dinner a swanky restaurant.

Bowling and Futball
We had a fun activity mid week to watch the German National team play their quarter-final game in the Euro-cup tournament at a bowling alley. It was a lot of fun, and I lost horribly to guys that were a bit tipsy. I really am a horrible bowler.

Germany won their game on Wednesday, and so did everyone I bowled against . . .

So, that is about it for week one, I met some cool people, saw the sights, and was pretty much exhausted 24-7. Next post, the really fun stuff, there will be danger, daring and reckless driving!

Safe and Sound

I was going to put a German phrase as the title of this post, but then I realized that I don't know a single German word! How sad is that. I know at least "hello" and "goodbye" in most major languages, but I have just recently realized my absolute ignorance when it comes to German. For the last few seconds I've been contemplating why this one language has been overlooked. My pondering has resulted in no answers, so when Luke gets back, I'm going to make sure I at least learn a few words -- just to even it out with the rest of the handful of foreign words in my pathetically small foreign vocabulary. Anyway, I digress...this post is about Luke making it Germany...
The trip started out a bit rough, but has since gotten better. When he went to check-in at the airport for his long flight to Frankfurt, the desk attendant couldn't pull up his information. Apparently a manager in Germany had locked the file for the flight right as he was trying to check in, so after a few minutes of struggling with the flight information, the desk clerk got him checked in, but was concerned that his luggage wouldn't be arriving at the same time. So, she upgraded him to First Class just in case there were problems. I tell you what, a 10 hour flight is a great time to be upgraded! Well, the desk attendant was correct in assuming that his luggage would be held up. When he finally got to Leipzig, his luggage was still in Frankfurt. They finally got his luggage to him by noon Monday morning, but thank goodness he chose to dress "business casual" for the flight instead of in shorts and a T-shirt. Luke said he might adopt the habit of putting some clean underwear in his carry-on for future flights... ;) I'll let him tell about the rest of the trip when he gets home in a few weeks, but so far he's really enjoying the conference and he's pretty much over the jet-lag by now, so the "nodding off" during the presentations is being kept to a minimum.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

We love having friends that score us great tickets to things...

Some friends of ours regularly get to see Houston Astros games because her parents have season tickets and so they invited us to come with them last night to see them play the Milwaukee Brewers. I'm not one to sit down and watch a baseball game on T.V. -- unless I'm in need of a nap -- but actually going to the game is a great fun. I think I'm good luck too -- every game I've been to, the home team has won. ;) They should keep me around a bit more, eh? So, needless to say, the Astros stomped the Brewers 6-1. Like I said, I'm good luck!

Summer's Here!

The last few weeks have been getting hotter and hotter by the day and we've finally conceded that it's not going to get cooler until October...We'd forgotten how suffocating heat mixed with humidity is, but our memories have been sufficiently jogged and our new resolution is to use our community pool as much as possible! I'll tell you what, that is about the only thing that makes it bearable -- and the fabulously warm beach!
I just wanted to wish everyone a great summer -- enjoy the great weather! We'll get ours in about 5 months.... :)

Stop to Breath!

I've been so busy the last three weeks that I haven't had a quiet minute to myself, much less had time to post. -- I'm not complaining, because I've been having a great time...just a jam-packed time.

First, Luke's parents came into town for a week and we were so happy that they took the time to come all the way down here! We had a great time showing them the sites around here and even made a spontaneous trip to San Antonio for two days. We loved having everyone and hope they had a great time too. Hopefully we left enough stuff out to warrant another trip! ;)

After the Werretts' visit, I left the same day for Utah/Idaho to spend some time with my family. Both Bethany and Neal are leaving for a mission in May, so I wanted to spend some time with them and say my goodbye's. I was able to go through the temple with Bethany the first week in the newly dedicated Rexburg temple and it was a great experience having nearly the entire family in attendance. Unfortunately it will be a while before we're all together again.
During the week I even had time to get one last day of skiing in at Targhee and, let me tell you, it felt so good! If I had to narrow it down to the one thing I miss about home, besides family of course, it would be skiing...It's hard to come by down here...except in my dreams. And I have dreamt a lot about it this year!!! (I'm pretty awesome in my dreams...)!!

Today, I started my personal training program and I think I'm really going to enjoy it. I was super nervous about it this weekend...almost doubting my decision...but the class is a good one and I can already tell that I'm going to learn more than I may be able to handle. Oh, and I'll probably be sore for the next 16 weeks straight -- but I think all the pain will be worth it. (Maybe it'll give me a little sympathy for my clients later.)

Thanks to Luke's family for a great week! And thank you to my family for all their hospitality! It was a great trip. I love you all and miss you already.

The Project

Emily and I decided shortly after we moved to Texas, that our kitchen was a little dark and a little too enclosed. Well, I thought, on T.V. they just knock a wall down and rearrange the floor plan, and they are always done in 30 minutes, and that's with commercials! Shouldn't be too hard right? Right. We knew that we couldn't do that, so we brainstormed some other ideas and came to a compromise. The following pictures show what we did, and yes I still have all my fingers, and no the scars are not that noticeable, and whatever you may have heard, Emily did not almost electrocute me . . .

BEFORE





Me Doing Electrical Work

"Okay flip the breaker and see if it does anything . . ."


Some Final Touches with the Gutting Job



Fun With Drywall



DONE!

Remember The Alamo!

Since moving to Texas, we've been thinking that we should take advantage of the cities within driving distance of Houston. First on our list: San Antonio. We purchased tickets to see Phantom of the Opera about six months ago, so we decided to make a whole weekend of it. My cousin Tad lives in S.A., and he was kind enough to let us stay at their house for a few days.

Friday morning we toured Sea World with Tad's wife, Jessica, and their two kids, Preston and Eliza. I had been to the Sea World in San Diego when I was about 11, but I'd forgotten how cool some of the attractions were. We got to see the famous "Shamu" in action as well as just about every other sea creature worth notice. In addition to the animals, they also have several roller-coasters and some really interesting shows. We spent the entire day quite entertained. If you ever get the chance to go, it's worth it!



You can buy a tray full of little fish and feed them to the dolphins. They were smart though, if you didn't have any fish, they totally ignored you!


This is a photo Luke took with his cellphone of the waterskiing/wakeboarding show. It was my favorite show of the day and it was absolutely amazing!


Saturday, we spend the morning and afternoon touring some of San Antonio's most famous attractions and landmarks including: the famous San Antonio Riverwalk, extremely old Missions and of course, The Alamo. I've heard the story of The Alamo a million times, but it was really cool to actually walk into the building and see where everything actually took place.
The San Antonio Riverwalk is also awesome. Many cities claim to have a "riverwalk" of sorts, but I doubt any can compare to the original. They have shops and music and restaurants all along the river on both sides and it is absolutely beautiful.

Here's a few pics of the Riverwallk:






This is the Alamo:


This is the Mission we visited. For as old as it is, it was in surprisingly good shape.




Pics of Eliza and Preston:




After our city tour with Tad and Jessica, we left on our own to get ready to see the show. Tad and Jessica recommended several excellent places to have a nice dinner on the Riverwalk, and we chose a modern restaurant called Acenar. The atmosphere was really cool and it was located only about 1/2 block from the Majestic Theater.

Dinner at Acenar: